The Secret World of American Communism (Annals of Communism Series)

By Keith Dowding and Brad Taylor

Book Overview

For the first time, the hidden world of American communism can be examined with the help of documents from the recently opened archives of the former Soviet Union. By interweaving narrative and documents, the authors of this book present a convincing new picture of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), one of the most controversial organizations in American public life. Heated debates about whether the Communist Party harbored spies or engaged in espionage have surrounded the party from its inception. This authoritative book provides proof that the CPUSA was involved in various subversive activities. At the same time, it discloses fascinating details about the workings of the party and about the ordinary Americans and CPUSA leaders who participated in its clandestine activities. The documents presented range from letters by Americans wishing to do international covert work for the Soviet Union to top secret memos between the head of Soviet foreign intelligence, the Comintern, and the CPUSA. They confirm that --the Soviet Union heavily subsidized the CPUSA and that some prominent Americans laundered money for the Comintern; --the CPUSA maintained a covert espionage apparatus in the United States with direct ties to Soviet intelligence; --the testimony of former Communists concerning underground Communist activity in the United States can be substantiated; --American Communists working in government agencies stole documents and passed them to the CPUSA, which sent them on to Moscow; --the CPUSA played a role in atomic espionage; and much more. An engrossing narrative places the documents in their historical context and explains key figures, organizations, and events. Together the narrative and documents provide a revealing picture of American communism and convey the contradictory passions that drew so many Americans into the Communist movement and eventually tore that movement apart. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300061838
• ISBN13: 9780300061833
• Release Date: March 1995
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 380 Pages
• Weight: 1.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Demonstrates deep Soviet involvement in American Communism

This is another terrific volume in that valuable and terrific series - "The Annals of Communism". The 92 documents provided in this book demonstrate clearly the way that American communism was used by the Soviet Union as a base of intelligence gathering. This is not to say that every American communist was disloyal, but that the funding and organization was provided from Moscow for purposes far from merely ideological. There...

Brief introduction to documentary evidence

As the authors make clear in the introduction, this book presents only a handful of thousands of documents regarding American communism which they found in ex-Soviet archives.The authors note that most scholorship of the fifties, sixties and seventies painted a fairly accurate picture of American communism. According to this picture, well documented here, the Soviet Union used the American communist parties as tools for Soviet...

Meanwhile back in the archive

Two scholars and interpreters deep in the Comintern archive. You get Morris Cohen's application to join the International Brigades. Primary source evidence of Soviet control of CPUSA and the cross pollinization into intelligence and information gathering. A must read for Comintern addicts.

An excellent book! A real eye-opener.

This book should result in the rewriting of some aspects of our history. The idea that American Communists were just trying to create Socialism in America with "guidance" from their fraternal brothers and sisters in Russia is a blatent lie: as the authors show, the CPUSA was a puppet for the Soviets, doing their bidding. Particularly disturbing was the aspect of Americans attending military courses while in Moscow and wearing...

What the Communist Party didn't want you to know

After World War II, as the Seventy Years war heated up, various defectors from the Communist cause told the world that the Communist Party, USA was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Soviet Union, which was dedicated to foisting it's system on the world through espionage and subversion. Cooler heads said they were paranoid nuts.Well guess what? The "paranoids" were dead right. When the Soviet Union dissolved, various closed...